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Sedans Honda Civic Honda Civic Basic Maintenance Questions
160 messages, Last post on Sep 20, 2009 at 3:35 PM
You are in the Honda Civic Forum. Your Hosts are pat & karens
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Replying to: jet10000 (May 26, 2009 10:56 am) Other than the ". . . . may contain minute particles from the manufacturing process.", which is why I do so many oil changes at the start of a new engine, to remove those particles so they don't become part of the "natural wear patterns". I don't have this car yet, so I was using 7500 because that was the recommended oil change interval on my Odyssey. I've never had a car with something that told me when to change the oil. I just do it every 5000 miles, which makes it easy for my wife ("If it ends in a 5 or a 0 I need to know because it's time to change the oil.") Thanx for letting me know about the ownerlink site. I wasn't aware of that. Keith
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Replying to: atlkep1 (May 27, 2009 4:18 am) With the maintenance minder, when it's time to change the oil, it shows the code in the odometer display and you have to press a button to clear it out of that display until the minder is reset to 100% by the dealership or by yourself if you have the oil change done elsewhere.
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Replying to: jet10000 (May 27, 2009 6:26 am)
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Replying to: iluvmycar (Jul 01, 2009 11:06 am) The 1 is for a tire rotation. If you look over the list for B, the only thing that is not an inspection is the oil change. When an oil change is done at my dealership, they do a fairly detailed list of inspections at no charge anyway and give me a checked off summary sheet of the conditions. So whenever I get a B 1, I just ask for a simple oil change and a tire rotation. Saves me some money over what they'd usually charge for a B1. |
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Replying to: pat (Sep 04, 2008 12:50 pm) I have a 98 Honda wit 106. miles. It spends most of its time in airport parking lots. I left it off at a Honda Dealer to get a new headlight and oil change and was contacted later with a list of things that needed to be done ASAP. I would really appreciate any feedback on the need and estimates if they sound about right. 1.) I do not know what "bushings" are but I guess they are important. I was told that the rear trailing arm bushings need to be replaced  $668.77. 2.) Drain and replace brake fluid $133.09 3.) Drain and replace Power Steering Fluid $151.69 4.) Replace valve cover gasket and Spark Plugs $176.30 Just checking on the urgency as it looks like I would be making their weekly budget in the service department! Thanks for any help. kmp7
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Replying to: kmp7 (Sep 16, 2009 7:12 pm) 1.) If the bushings really are bad, you need to get this done. I would get a second opinion before I spent any money, though. 2.) Probably not necessary (brake fluid) 3.) Probably not necessary (power steering fluid) 4.) Are you leaking oil? The gasket, I think, would correct that. Spark plugs might improve performace, but they are very easy to do yourself, if you're so inclined. For the sake of comparison, I had a '97 Civic that I drove into the ground. I traded it in about a year-and-a-half ago with about 180,000 miles. I never did #2, #3, or the gasket; and I never needed the bushings replaced. Granted, that doesn't mean you shouldn't do the brake fluid or power steering; I'm just saying I never did. What ultimately killed my car was a very slow transmission fluid leak that I didn't know about until it was too late... So there is something to be said for routine maintenance, fluid flushes, etc. Whatever the case, you're Civic is barely broken in and you should get many more miles out of it. Good luck!
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Replying to: civictory (Sep 17, 2009 6:31 am) You can probably get better prices on everything if you go to a mechanic you can trust. |
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Replying to: kmp7 (Sep 16, 2009 7:12 pm) First of, you are correct. You will be helping the Service Dept meet the weekly budget targets, because: a) Trailing Arm bushings are good to replace at a future time, but are not critical and not Have to be replaced ASAP. Not having them replaced will affect your tire's alignment and wear n tear so you may check it out later. Perhaps call around and get quote from repair facilities. Sears, Pep Boys or go to Yelp.com and search for independent honda mechanic. b) Brake Fluid change / flush: This is Important. But there are two things to consider: 1) $133 is too high a price. most honda dealers run specials to do this for $89.99 or $79.99. Call around to get good price. Now the second part (2) check your records to see when was the last time you changed the brake oil. Honda recommends changing this every 3 years regardless of miles driven.if you've changed regularly, then go right ahead and get this done for less than $90. But, if you have never had a brake oil changed, thats a whole different ball game. The thing is, old brake oil has aged with the car and its seals, that the new brake oil will be stronger and will cut through the old seals resulting in a failure of master cylinder ($600), aka brake failure.. thats a life threatening situation. I had this exact thing happened to me and then later to my brother to his 2000 civic. perhaps you can benefit from experience. Ask the tech how bad is the brake oil? Take your car to other shop and get second opinion. If you can hold off on this, thats great, but if you must change right away, keep checking your master cylinder for any brake oil leaks. c) Power Steering Fluid: Thats just total BS. Honda does not recommend changing P/S fluid, and you will notice that in the Scheduled Maintenance' section of the owners manual that p/s fluid change is not mentioned. The Honda service dept cooks this up to get your money. I talked to the Honda Master tech I've known for 10 years and these were his words. He recommended I don't change the p/s fluid. d) Valve Cover Gasket and Spark Plugs: These items are usually done when changing the timing belt of the car. Check the scheduled maintenance section of your owner's manual to see when timing belt is due. At that time you'll also need to get the water pump changed. CONCLUSION: If you are not married to your civic, the time has come to think about replacing it. Even though the miles are low, it still is a 10 year old vehicle and things are going to start going south soon. In the next 3 to 6 months you will need: a) Trailing Arm Bushings - $600 b) Brake Fluid change - $ 90 c) Master Cylinder change - $600 d) Timing Belt package (timing belt, water pump, spark plugs, gasket etc) $1000 In total you'll end up spending about $2300 on the car in 6 months with more to come soon. If I were you, I would consider the possibility to replace this car. Take the $2300 you need to fix this car, + about $5k you can get by selling it, you can make that a down payment on a new(er) vehicle that will not have these many issues. |
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I recently bought a civic LX-S with Continental tires. The car runs fine but the tires are very noisy..Are Continentals just lower quality and run noisy? Has anybody else had a similar issue with these tires.My wife also has a civic but it came with Goodyear RS-A tires which seem quieter..Any suggestions on what I can do..I do not want to go spend 400 on new tires..Any suggestions would be appreciated...
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Replying to: midway54 (Sep 20, 2009 8:50 am) To your question, I would say check out tirerack.com and lookup your exact tire and see the survey test results. That will tell you how your current tires stack up against other and whether that means you to look for replacement in the long term. good luck |
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